Posts Tagged ‘Politics’

The fact that MPs are spending time today talking about puppies and kittens may cause some people to feel despair or even anger. After all, the Middle East is in murderous turmoil, Russian aggression ...
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It’s official, then. David Lammy is the first big name to declare his interest in the Mayoral vacancy in 2016, with an interview in the Evening Standard. (Christian Wolmar, the London-based academic...
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The House of Lords is now in recess for more than two months and I have been a peer for a year. I’ve found there are difficult practical aspects of being a lone peer, and have made a lot of mistakes...
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It is tough at the top, clearly. How else to explain the decision of Mark Simmonds, until Monday a foreign office minister, to resign. His complaint was not, as with Baroness Warsi, over government po...
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No wonder there was rejoicing on Labour’s front benches when Michael Gove was shuffled off to the Whips’ Office. The socialist firebrands were clearly worried that if Britain’s schools become an...
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I write a lot about the concept of “narrative” when I’m discussing politics. Politicians and their advisors are obsessed by it. It’s a flash word for “story”. You take a lot of random spee...
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The first general election results program I ever watched was in 1987. I have this memory of John Cole sombrely informing me “I’ve just been speaking to a Tory MP. He’s got his feet in a mustard...
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If there is one fundamental truth of today’s election results, it’s this: none of the older political parties know what to do about Ukip. That’s because they don’t really know why Ukip is adva...
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For many a millennium, life on the island of Mauritius must have seemed pretty good for dodos. Surrounded by sun and the sea, they could potter about eating stuff. Not having any wings must have hardl...
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In my Telegraph review of John Campbell’s wonderful new life of Roy Jenkins I did not have space to explore three essential points. The first concerns age. Jenkins was 42 years old when he first sto...
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